The introduction of the Rebel Alliance as more than just a rumour or distant organisation is something that most EOTE groups will have to go through, especially if they plan on actually having their PCs become involved in the Galactic Civil War. Sometimes PCs will have background with the Rebels, but sometimes the group will have had no prior dealings with the Alliance.

So it begs the question: how are the GMs here planning on having their group of fringers encounter the Rebel Alliance for the first time, in a way that makes such a fateful meeting memorable and impacting on the characters? As some players see the inclusion of this organisation as a precursor to ongoing conflict with the Empire that they will be involved in , especially if they've had no dealings or encounters with the Imperials beforehand, this is a point worth discussing.

An easy way to do this is to have them be hired to run/smuggle goods for the Alliance or to Rebel-sympathizing worlds. This kind of option is rife with story-advancing opportunities.

A rather common idea is to have the "Rebel connection" for their job be a secret until they arrive at their destination. After all, they're hired for a job, they don't need to know anything much beyond "pick this up from X contact here, and deliver it to X contact there." Then while they're there dropping the goods, the Rebels get attacked by the Empire and beg the heroes for a ride off-world as they evacuate, and offer to pay them 2,000 now and 15,000 when they get to Dantooine.

Meanwhile, one of the heroes meets a nice-looking diplomat with plenty of Duty (doody!), calls her "your worshipfulness," and starts accumulating Duty of his own.

That's one avenue, certainly, but it's one I'm hoping to avoid, purely because it is so iconic that it's a bit anti-climatic.

I'm already laying the groundwork for this in my campaign. My players are a group of shady individuals, so I'm going to have them smuggle and deliver some cargo for the Rebels (without them knowing who they're working for, of course). I've already introduced some sympathetic NPCs who I plan on having my players come to like and then I'll have them get mixed up with the Rebels. When these NPCs invariably get in trouble with the Empire they'll ask my players for help, and thus get them involved with the Rebellion as well.

I also plan on introducing some Imperial NPCs, specifically a really annoying customs captain and a nasty ISB agent who can really sour my players on the Empire. That, combined with all the sweet new specializations that will show up in AoR, should be more than sufficient to have them join up voluntarily.

The one thing I won't do is put my players in a position where they're forced to join up. That sort of thing can just sour the players on the whole campaign. I'll present them with the option and plenty of incentive to take it, and then let them decide.

For what it's worth, current canon has the formal Rebel Alliance dating back only as recently as 2 BBY (no thank you The Force Unleashed ) as an amalgamation of prior resistance movements, so PCs may have had past history with these earlier pre-Alliance incarnations. By the "official" time of EotE (post-Yavin) the Rebel Alliance will probably be known as a real thing and more than rumor, though perhaps still a distant organization that the players have yet to meet up with (possibly "again").

I've intended on trying to give them glimpses of the group, and more than few experiences with the Empire - both direct and indirect. I want to try and give them a reason to agree with the Rebellion, maybe to such the degree that they are the ones seeking the organisation out.

But, as with Krieger, I won't be forcing a path on the group; hell, I'll also be taking steps to make the decision a more difficult one to make, so that - if the decide to join - they know that the decision they've made is the RIGHT one. For example, I plan on having them encounter an Imperial officer on occasion who proves to be a staunch patriot - but also a man of honour, who keeps his word and takes steps to ensure that those under his protectorate are kept from harm. One upcoming scene, for example, will have him take custody of one of the crew, and speak with him in a manner more "on the level" than what you'd expect: he'll agree to let the character go if he can provide some information for him, and will keep to his word if the character cooperates. He may also assist the group during their continued run ins with some pesky pirates.

I was thinking of offering the players a lucrative job by someone known as Targeter. They have no idea who that is...yet.

A rebel agent was caught on board their ship. She was investigating a rumour that the players had found a large cargo of Clone War era war materials and was trying to sell it. They told her that the rebels were more than welcome to put in a bid, cause yeah, they did have a bulk frieghters worth of stuff they were trying to unload. Then they let her go.

The next day, one of the players decides to go looking for her. He managed to suceed on a very difficult perception roll and found her in a crowd, then passed another very difficult stealth roll and managed to tail her. Then he walked right into the rebel safe house. They were not amused.

Worked out well tho, cause some really nasty pirates had also heared the rumors and kidnapped the guys the party were working for. The characters managed to rescue the VIPs, then had to hightail it out to the bulk cruiser stuffed with guns. They held the pirates off just long enough for the rebels to show up and 'steal' the cargo. Then I got to give one of my players a dilemma, cause the rebels paid the characters, but the characters were working for someone else. They chose not to keep the big pile of creds and keep their friends.

Nice ideas. I like the last one, particularly.

My campaign timeline is just before ep4. I'm going to be doing the scenarios in d20 1st edition rebellion era sourcebook. Takes the party right through the OT.

Same here. I've set my game 1 year before the Death Star is destroyed.

May I ask, those of you wanting to run the original films, are you using the canon NPCs or are your PCs taking those roles?

I sat down and rewrote things to better fit the vision of what we wanted... but was interested to know what other people are doing with the setting?

The iconic characters may make an appearance in my campaign, and the PCs have the chance to influence the "canon as it was", but they have their own characters, who are the inarguable stars of the universe.

My characters are already working for the Empire in a very twisted way. An Imperial Officer made them an offer they couldn't refuse and have helped the Officer gain a higher political standing by removing threats in his local sector, from Hutts to some known Black Sun influences. He has been paying them under the table and has also been covering costs to repair ships and grant them special passes to certain areas/planets that are normally heavily guarded by Imperial ships.

Of course, that may change depending on how they deal with ISO tech in the next session and the following Core Rulebook adventure about Droid rights.

At the moment, the plan is for the Imperial Officer to wipe the slate clean, by sending the group on a mission that is a trap that is meant to remove them. I won't go into too many details as my group do read the FFG website! During the mission, they will feel the full might of the Empire and the Nemesis/Rival characters they have met so far and their only possible escape is to discover a ship heading for Sullust to rendezvous with Rebel forces, for protection at first.

Basically, it is my big EotE 'season finale' where all of their choices will come to a head and they will have to deal with those consequences. How they deal with ISO Tech(Beyond the Rim), killing a high ranking Black Sun member (Under a Black Sun), removing the Hutts from a planet to make it fully Imperial controlled (Long arm of the Hutt) and various Rivals/Nemesis they have made along the way and so much more over the coming months as we get closer to the release of AoR.

I'm thinking the finale will last a good 3/4 sessions.

The iconic characters may make an appearance in my campaign, and the PCs have the chance to influence the "canon as it was", but they have their own characters, who are the inarguable stars of the universe.

I'm interested as to how that will affect the 'canon' characters.

Your PCs are not really the stars of the show is blowing up the Death Star, strangling Hutts and rescuing important princesses.

There's a difference between focusing on the PCs, and them being the actual stars of the story.

This was my main problem with any Star Wars RPG, and why I pretty much had to rewrite everything.

Call it 'Forgotten Realms Syndrome' : 'Why are we doing this again? Is it Luke's day off?'

The iconic characters may make an appearance in my campaign, and the PCs have the chance to influence the "canon as it was", but they have their own characters, who are the inarguable stars of the universe.

I'm interested as to how that will affect the 'canon' characters.

Your PCs are not really the stars of the show is blowing up the Death Star, strangling Hutts and rescuing important princesses.

There's a difference between focusing on the PCs, and them being the actual stars of the story.

This was my main problem with any Star Wars RPG, and why I pretty much had to rewrite everything.

Call it 'Forgotten Realms Syndrome' : 'Why are we doing this again? Is it Luke's day off?'

I disagree. A lot could happen "off-screen" that could affect those events without ever touching on them directly - Luke, Leia and Han might be the heroes in those scenes, but that doesn't mean that equally important events can't be taking place that have as far reaching consequences as the films.

Also, there's always the chance that a PC taking a specific action might throw canon out of the window entirely. It's why I'm often of the mind that canon doesn't really exist in my RPGs: by merely existing, the PCs are already influencing things, especially if they're pro-active in their adventures and exploits.

I'd add that in the context of the Galactic Civil War, this isn't "Forgotten Realms Syndrome" on the Rebel end... or at least, not (nearly) as much as on the Imperial end, who if anything are what you use to measure "Forgotten Realms Syndrome" with! Even as late as Hoth, the Heroes of Yavin are experienced as hell but don't hold a candle to some of the Empire's elites as far as training goes, much less the "even more" elite.

Speaking of the joke about "Is it Luke's day off?" Well... that was Dagobah. Yet when people think "Rogue Squadron" they think "Wedge Antilles" and not "Luke Skywalker"... why not give your PCs a similar chance?

P.S. This is one of the things that I like about campaign design -- pick a good "point of divergence", and you may not have a paucity of options when your players get canon-derailingly ambitious...

One of my player's characters was part of a "neutral" Alderranian Peace Corps-type organization. They were off planet when it was destroyed. When the news arrived, the groups leadership suddenly wanted to head to another location even though they were in the middle of a humanitarian mission. My player's character decided stayed behind to finish the mission as her cohorts left. After she had finished the mission, she headed to the rendezvous planet - Formos - only to find the entire group had been arrested for conspiring against the Empire - all the time she had no idea. Little did she know they had been working for the rebellion the entire time.

This was my main problem with any Star Wars RPG, and why I pretty much had to rewrite everything.

Call it 'Forgotten Realms Syndrome' : 'Why are we doing this again? Is it Luke's day off?'

I've always seen Star Wars as more of a setting that a story, which I guess is why I've never felt like this. Everything takes place in a kind of unchanging now. And the adventures are the kind of day to day activities that I felt people got up to between the momentous events of the movies. So, like, Edge of the Empire style freighter crew adventures are the sort of thing that Han Solo did before he met Luke and got involved with the Rebellion. And Rebel style campaigns are what Luke gets up to opposing the Empire off screen.

So in this case, every week the PCs learn about a nefarious scheme the despicable Empire have cooked up and foil it, or learn about an opportunity to strike a blow against the evil empire and strike that blow.

Technically, at some point in the future Vader will throw the Emperor in to a pit and bring about the fall of the New Order, but this is in the same way that at some point the kids in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon will eventually find a way home or the Korean war will end and the staff of the 4077th MASH will go home. Essentially, there is more chance of the series being cancelled than them ever making that last episode, and to be honest it is all about the journey rather than the destination anyway.

In Saga Ed. my PCs were part of a small light infantry unit in the CIS army. One of the PCs was a droid and the rest were organics so they were an experimental "integrated" squad. The campaign was set 4 years after the events of Ep. III so they were part of the fledgling Alliance.

In EotE I plan having the local operator of an Alliance Sleeper Cell acting as one of the antagonist and a low ranking Imperial Intelligence Agent working as a sympathetic NPC. I kinda want to illustrate that even the though the Alliance cause is a noble one they can attract some real scum bags and vice versa with the Imps. Shades of grey are pretty important in the tone of scum and villany stories

In my current game (EotE but incorporating AoR ASAP) the players shot the first Rebel agent they encountered. They had ISB show up to spoil their meet-up (two Depairs on the Streetwise check to set up the meet), and in the chaos one of the PCs guns down the Rebel. She did it because it looked likely that the Rebel was going to be caught, and she wanted to cover her own ass. The PCs fled and escaped the ISB thanks to the slicer's quick thinking. Not a very productive end for the PCs, the Rebels, or the ISB.

All good ideas.

22 Years ago I introduced my PC's to the plight of the Rebellion on a space station. Kwenn Station. Despite it being tagged as a hot spot for the Fett doppeldanger 'Joda Cast' my PC's braved the odds and would eventually become the 'Saviours of the Minos Cluster' I found the first D6 Adventure 'Tattooine Manhunt' packed with enough 'expanded universe' goodness to serve as a suitable meeting place to promote the Rebel recruitment drive. Basically described it as similar to Cloud City, yet set in space.

Now, two decades later Its with gamer's pride that I started another campaign set in an 'Age of Rebellion' on a space station that steals the first act of 'Beyond the Rim', the first offical adventure released by Fantasy Flight. Space Station: 'The Wheel' (Wheel indeed, this game comes full circle from Kween Station from the first D6 avdenture)

(Don't get me started on how the Starter set was techically the first adventure- Tore that game open and found myself wondering why it wasn't red with a Dragon the box.....there? See what you've done Fantasy Flight- You've quickened me. I feel like a kid again. Love the ship map....now give us an Imperial Shuttle map with the Rebel Starter and I'll buy your X-Wing Corellian Corvette okay?)

Anyways, back to 'The Wheel' (Took me 15 minutes to regain player discipline after I described it as Deep Space Nine did the nasty with the Space Station from 2001: A Space Odyssey....And this is their baby. "Here!....see? Look at this picture...." )

Moving along. I researched the history of the 'Wheel' and noted a very early encounter on this station with post Ep4 but pre Ep5 Luke, Han and Leia. Had my PC's get trapped on the city...under Imperial lockdown despite its assurances to the local administrator that the station would remain Imperial free. Told a story within a story, where the PC's stop an Imperial Garrison from trying to take the station just before an encounter with the 'Heroes of the Rebellion' where Princess Leia puts them on retainer before continuing with their own adventure. (I like to keep to cannon as much as possible in my campaigns)

So after treating them to an 'equipment shopping spree' on Princess Leia's credit card, my PC's exchanged barely civil words (amid a firefight with Imperials) with a disgruntled, if not protective Han Solo....sure, he says he's just trying to keep the 'reward money' to himself but you all know he just didn't like my 'Scum and Villany crew' from taking advantage of the Princess.

I love motif. And the irony of having my PC's chastised by an "Edge of the Empire" poster boy for taking financial advantage of a young lady who just come of age....(an 'Age of Rebellion') did not go unnoticed by my gamers as I pulled out a surprise book and put it on the table. My PC's dove for the Rebellion Beta book like women would to cheese cake at an Opra Winfrey book readers broadcast...

You folks notice the 'trilogy irony'? of these new books? 'Edge' was for Solo fans. 'Rebellion' is for those that would answer Leia's call to war. 'Force and Destiny' clearly when Luke Skwalker deserves an offical unveiling...certainly more mention then a blonde dude dressed in a black body suit and some god awful yellow jacket....

I plan to have the Rebels show up now and again in my group's various jobs, either opposed to their goals (When employed by the Hutts and the Empire) or in support of them (When employed by sympathetic former Senators and the like, or even disguised as their employers) and let my PCs form their own in-universe opinions of the Alliance based on those interactions.

How am I planning to introduce the rebels? Well with the dribs and drabs of information about Alderaan and Yavin being leaked to the galaxy, they've come to the conslusion that they are more orginized than proper imperial news sources might be letting on (although this was backed up with "well, it might just be a imperial *********** and someone is covering their 'whoopsie' with a cover story").

I'm thinking I might have rebel privateers show up and hijack their cargo. It'd be fun to paint the rebels as terrorist bad guys (that just set the team back 15 grand in cargo, no less) for a while.